Recruitment and admissions experience

Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) remains an important topic for the postgraduate sector. This resource includes key facts and figures on widening access and participation for historically underrepresented communities in postgraduate education as the UKCGE prepares for the 2nd UKCGE Conference on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Postgraduate Research focused on Race and Ethnicity.

Louise Banahene PFHEA MBE is the Director of Educational Engagement and Student Success at University of Leeds. Louise is an experienced higher education leader with a focus on equity, access, and inclusion in student journeys. Her experience led her to be awarded an MBE in 2018 for services to Higher Education. She was awarded the Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2021.

The following slides were created by YCEDE and used during a webinar for UGs and PGTs interested in applying for a PhD. The webinar explained the application and selection process for two White Rose scholarship schemes in Social Sciences and in Arts & Humanities.

The following slides were created by YCEDE and used during a webinar for UGs and PGTs interested in applying for a PhD. The webinar explained what a PhD is, the role of a supervisor, the workload shifts and key checkpoints during the PhD process, and featured a Q&A with some current PhD students. 

This document was created by YCEDE and outlines the constraints and enablers to improving equity in doctoral admissions, as well as suggesting potential initiatives to address these challenges. There is a separate document available for CDTs/​DTPs.

This document was created by YCEDE and outlines the constraints and enablers to improving equity in doctoral admissions, as well as suggesting potential initiatives to address these challenges. There is a separate document available for Schools & Departments.

Dr Rebekah Smith McGloin (Nottingham Trent University) and Professor Julie Sheldon (Liverpool John Moores University) provide an introduction to the EDEPI Project, which is helping to increase access and participation in doctoral education. There are some useful tools and resources, linked below, which have emerged from the work and which are free to access.

Doctoral education sits at the point of connection between work to drive equality of opportunity in access and success in undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes, and efforts to create a fairer, more open and inclusive research culture and community which is more representative of wider UK society.

The Postgraduate Researcher Competency-Based Admissions Framework has been developed as part of the Equity in Doctoral Education through Partnership and Innovation (EDEPI) project, led by Nottingham Trent University in collaboration with Liverpool John Moores and Sheffield Hallam Universities.

In this video, Bukola Oyinloye and Paul Wakeling from YCEDE discuss the use of rubrics and holistic review in doctoral selection and admission. The use of assessment rubrics and criteria for selection which try to assess an applicant’s wider set of PhD-relevant skills is one means to support fairer and more equitable doctoral recruitment.